New Year! New Planner Calendar! 2017! (clutter culture)

After a week or so of 2016 I wrote a hopeful post about my new planner. It looked like this:

My 2016 wasn't great. I'm still alive, have food, family, and health, but there were some rough parts of the year.

I look forward to a new year.

Here is what the calendar looks like now:

I didn't add very many stickers.

2016 didn't deserve many stickers.

I'm tempted to burn this planner... but I'll probably just put it in my office with the other ones.

I have a new planner!

I have some hope that 2017 will be a good year. Not as much as I did for 2016, but there is some.

Maybe 2017 will be worthy of a cover caked with stickers.

Oh, yeah.

Lots of great people died this year.

I don't really do much of the "remembering celebrities that just died" thing. Everyone else has it pretty much covered. It feels more "look at me" than any real tribute to those that have passed.

So I haven't really done much about Carrie Fisher or George Michael or Debbie Reynolds or anybody else that died.

I'm going to post a couple videos below from my youtube channel. They aren't tributes, but they are disgusting self-promotion.  Both videos are related to someone who passed this year (George Michael and Debbie Reynolds), but they aren't about them. They're about me.

I feel horrible doing this, but I also keep thinking about posting these stupid videos.

I don't feel better, but at least it's done now.

Here's to a great, sticker-full 2017! A year with far fewer deaths.

It's December!!!!

It's December!

I loved Thanksgiving! I had a great time with my family, ate too much, etc.

During November I participated in NaNoWriMo!

And I won!

I wrote a novel called "Status: Solver"! It's pretty stream-of-conscious and probably not the best book, but if you want to read it you can read it HERE!


If you participated, good for you! I hope you won too!

Here's a celebration song I recorded when I first won, several years ago!

Glad it's done!

My Favorite Yard Haunt 2016!

It was hard to get up this morning.

I slept okay, but had busy dreams that I wanted to keep dreaming.

I felt a bit like a record that started from a standstill and sloooowly sped up to regular speed.

I got into my car, feeling like I did not have enough energy to get through the workday ahead, when I saw what is now my FAVORITE YARD HAUNT OF 2016!

It wasn't because of any particular decoration or even the yard haunt itself, but the fact that it was there, blinking from across the street between two of my backyard neighbors. As I was driving to a day of work that I wasn't looking forward to, I saw this gaudy, blinking reminder that it is still Halloween Season for a few more days! Plus "On the Sunny Side of the Street" by the Manhattan Transfer was playing on WITT! I love that song.

It was enough to make me stop and take 2 short videos of it so I could remember it and so I could share it with you.

I drove by it again this afternoon.

Not really much to look at in the daylight. A grim reaper guy, a giant spider with a red butt, a generic Jack Skellington-looking guy with a hat, and the Staypuft Marshmallow Man. Kind of boring actually, but this morning it provided me with a moment that I can only compare to the scene in a Christmas movie where the main character sees a Christmas tree light up, and everyone knows that it will all be okay.

Click here to see and read about my favorite yard haunt from 2015!  I've driven by several times to see if they put it up yet this year. Either they have not or the person who put it up last year no longer lives there. It makes me a bit sad, but this year's favorite mostly makes up for it.

What's your favorite Yard Haunt of 2016? Please comment! My blog is so lonely....

New Year, New Planner! (clutter culture)

I have to say, 2015 was rough.

No, I didn't get horribly sick, or lose a limb, or have anyone I love die.

But there were a lot of little bummers that added up to a rough year.


It seems like a lot of people had a rough 2015.


One of my little bummers was that I started a new job with older prek children than I worked with in 2014. Since I was going to be working with older children, getting paid more, and have more responsibilities in this job I decided to try to become more of an "adult".

Part of this was dressing a bit more professionally than I cared to.

Another part of it was not covering my daily planner calendar thing with stickers like I normally do.

The job only lasted about 6 months. I'm back with toddlers again and feel much better because of it.

But I kept the planner.

I carried it all year. It didn't get any stickers applied to it, but it did get water spilled on it repeatedly when my water bottles leaked all over my messenger bag on several occasions.

Gross.


I didn't even doodle in this planner as much as I usually do.

I'm glad 2015 is gone.

2016 is almost 10 days in as I write this. So far it hasn't been much better than 2015. Princess Melawesome and I have both been a little sick throughout this first week. A couple days ago I was sicker than I have been in a few years.

But I'm not letting that ruin my optimism!

I still think 2016 could be my year, and your year too!

I even have a new planner!

Work gave it to me!

I was planning on buying a fancy planner (waterproof, if it was available), but I got this for free and I really like the puppy on it.

Plus it already has a "$1" sticker on it!


2016 is My (Our) Year!


Let's cover it with stickers.

Wanna help me make more things like this? Click here! Help me buy more stickers.

JANUARY 1, 2016

I did it!

I made a Thing-a-Day every day of 2015!

Sometimes I fell behind a few days.

Sometimes I worked ahead a few days (like now, I made this two days ahead of time).



2015 was a hard year for a lot of people. Me too.

Nothing too horrible happened to me. I didn't lose anybody I love. I didn't lose any limbs. I didn't get fired.

It was just a lot of little bummers that added up to make for a less-than-enjoyable year.



ON TO 2016!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


This year I am not going to make a Thing-a-Day.


I plan to try to put up at least one article a week, but we'll see.

I'll still make Things and put them up. but it won't be every day.


Looking back, I made a lot of things. Some good. Some not good.



I think the best Thing I made was the Oatmeal Puppet Guy.

Maybe this year someone will become my Patron!